Guest post from Mote Ambassador Leader - Alex Isaacs, EdTech Specialist in the Long Branch Public Schools District.
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Imagine a classroom where interactive slides speak to students, offering them additional context, meaningful explanations, and engaging commentaries. This idea is part of the magic of Mote in Google Slides! As an educator of ten years, I’ve enjoyed teaching in schools and districts with large populations of diverse learners. Reflecting on the beginning of my career, I realize how little I integrated technology into my lessons - something I now regret. However, I did not understand edtech's impact on teaching and learning. 

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With years of experience and becoming skilled in multiple tech tools, I am excited to share my top three tips for integrating Mote in Google Slides, allowing you and your students to create more engaging, dynamic materials! In this blog post, we’ll delve into Mote’s new text-to-speech ‘Generate’ feature and explore use cases for editing icons and hyperlinking images, all within Google Slides! Read on for easy and impactful ideas to use with the learners in your classroom!

1. Personalizing Mote Sound Icons – The Mote recording tool within Google Slides automatically produces a purple sound icon when you record a mote audio message. However, you can personalize this visual with a GIF or picture to engage viewers and provide more explicit instructions. After recording your mote message, right-click the Mote sound icon and select ‘Replace image’ - you will see multiple options (the image below displays the eight possibilities available). While teaching, I made audio directions much more accessible for my emerging bilingual and neurodivergent learners by recording motes and replacing their sound icons with sequential numbers. Students would click on each number for more detailed directions or explanations of math concepts. Note: With this tip, it is essential to clarify to your students what icons produce sound and establish a system for how you will present audio messages to them.

Options to Replace the Mote Sound Icon

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2. Hyperlinking Motes for Inclusivity – Sometimes, I wanted my students to access mote messages displaying translated text within Google Slides. Using the Motepad Recorder within Mote’s Chrome extension makes it easy to elevate the inclusivity of audio messages. After recording and accepting a message on the Motepad, a hyperlink gets copied directly to your clipboard. Pasting this Mote hyperlink to an image within Google Slides gives listeners a popout audio player and translatable transcript. This trick proved handy when providing my students’ families with more accessible monthly class resource hubs. This strategy works well to add interactivity to different images within a slide deck. Combine it with Mote’s new translated text-to-voice feature for an additional layer of accessibility for multilingual learners. The picture below illustrates what students see when a mote link is attached to an image.

Mote Player When Hyperlinking Images

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3. Using the New ‘Generate’ Feature for Simple Speech-to-Text – One of Mote’s newest upgrades is its ‘Generate’ feature. This option is available on the Chrome extension and Google Slides recorder and allows users to add text into a space to create an auto-generated mote message. Creating a mote message from text is a quick option to provide accessible instructions, especially if you find yourself in a position where recording a personal audio message is not feasible. After clicking the Mote icon in Google Slides, select ‘Generate,’ and add your text to the box below. Once you’re happy with your text, hit the purple ‘Generate’ button at the bottom of the recorder, magically creating an audio message! This option can also benefit learners who may be less proficient at speaking a language than typing written information.
   
   

Mote Recorder’s New Generate Option

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As someone who has witnessed the powerful impact of integrating technology in the classroom, I encourage you to explore Mote’s features within Google Slides. The ease of use of Mote’s recorders allows users to personalize audio instructions, make content more accessible, and auto-generate quick recordings in seconds. With this appsmash, you can transform teaching and learning experiences, boosting student engagement while supporting their diverse needs. As we continue through the summer, I challenge all educators to infuse Mote into their next presentation and use this summer as an opportunity to develop their tech tool repertoire! Let’s use Mote Magic to enrich our slides and elevate inclusivity in our classrooms, one audio message at a time!